2019-20Regular SeasonRound 7
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens 91
Valencia Basket 80
November 08, 2019 CET: 20:30
Local time: 21:30 OAKA

Calathes-paced Greens hold off Valencia

Nick Calathes flirted with a triple-double once again and helped Panathinaikos OPAP Athens hold off visiting Valencia Basket 91-80 on Friday night in the Greek capital. The win improved the Greens to a 4-3 record, while Valencia dropped to 1-6 on the season. Panathinaikos pulled away early in the fourth quarter and held on led by Calathes who was just one assist shy of his second triple-double, collecting 13 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists in victory, while DeShaun Thomas led the Greens in scoring with 19 points. Tyrese Rice scored 14, Jimmer Fredette had 12 and Wesley Johnson netted 11. For the visitors, Jordan Loyd shined with 27 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals, Bojan Dubljevic scored 11, and Quino Colom had 10 assists in a losing effort.

Panathinaikos took control early with Fredette and Thomas fueling a 9-0 run, but Colom had a triple and Louis Labeyrie a three-point play to help the visitors take 11-13 lead. But Fredette replied with his second three-pointer, and Johnson capped a 10-0 run with a triple of his own, as Panathinaikos held a 26-18 lead after 10 minute. Vanja Marinkovic hit a downtown shot to start the second quarter, and Dubljevic scored twice inside, but Nikos Pappas had two triples, and dished an assist for a Georgios Papagiannis alley-oop dunk, extending the margin to 38-25. Colom strung together 7 points for Valencia, including a three-pointer, but Calathes had a three-point play and Fredette a circus-shot to help keep the lead in double figures, 45-35 at halftime. Valencia needed 2 minutes to catch up in the third quarter, helped by a baseline dunk from Dubljevic and a triple apiece from Loyd and Fernando San Emeterio to cut within 49-46. Thomas knocked down a triple for the hosts, and Calathes scored inside twice, but Guillem Vives and Dubljeivc hit threes, before Loyd nailed back-to-back from downtown to give Valencia 61-62 lead. The Greens, however, did take 68-64 lead into the fourth quarter thanks in part to effort from Ioannis Papapaterou and his three-point play before a transition triple from Thomas opened 73-64 early in the fourth, capping a 12-2 run. Back-to-back triples from Johnson and Rice increased the lead to 79-69, but Loyd and Valencia refused to go away. However, a corner three from Johnson with 1:22 to go made it 85-76, sealing the deal.

Triple double alert

Nick Calathes had a triple-double in the final regular season game last season, and almost got his second one in this one. There have been just three triple-doubles in the EuroLeague this century, two by Maccabi's Nikola Vujcic in November of 2005 and November of 2006, and last year's by Calathes.

Jordan Loyd stars

Valencia is going home with its sixth defeat this season, but Jordan Loyd had a fantastic performance with 27 points shooting 5-for-7 two-pointers, 3-for-3 from three-point range and 8-for-9 free throws, along with 8 assists and 5 rebounds, adding up to a club record PIR of 41.

Offensive boards denied

Valencia entered the game averaging 10.9 offensive rebounds but the two teams combined for less than that in this one. Panathinaikos held Valencia to just 4 offensive boards in this one, and the Greens were not that much better, pulling down just 6.

Pappas returns

Nikos Pappas made his first EuroLeague appearance since January of last season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a practice. Pappas had two three-pointers and an assist during a 5-minute span in the second quarter, and did not play in the second half.

Next up

Next week in Round 8 both teams will be at home. Panathinaikos will welcome ALBA Berlin (1-6) on Thursday, and Valencia will host FC Bayern Munich (3-4) on Friday.

Nick Calathes - Panathinaikos OPAP Athens - EB19
Friday, November 8, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: LATISEVS, OLEGS; JOVCIC, MILIVOJE; KOLJENSIC, MILOS
Attendance: 9130
By Quarter1234
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens26192323
Valencia Basket18172916
End of Quarter1234
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens26456891
Valencia Basket18356480
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 THOMAS, DESHAUN 31:48 19 6/6 2/3 1/2 3 2 5 1 2 2     2 2 23
5 RICE, TYRESE 22:03 14 3/7 1/1 5/5       3   2     3 6 14
6 PAPAGIANNIS, GEORGIOS 12:34 4 2/3       2 2   1 2     1   3
10 PAPAPETROU, IOANNIS 17:12 8 2/5 1/2 1/1       2     1 1 2 1 5
11 PAPPAS, NIKOS 4:55 6 0/1 2/2         1   1     1 1 5
15 VOUGIOUKAS, IAN 9:45 2 1/1       2 2 1   1     1 3 6
24 JOHNSON, WESLEY 25:22 11 1/1 3/5     5 5 1   1 1   1   14
32 FREDETTE, JIMMER 17:48 12 2/3 1/3 5/5   1 1 1 2 2   1   2 12
33 CALATHES, NICK 29:49 13 6/12 0/3 1/3 2 10 12 9   2     3 2 20
35 WILEY, JACOB 17:03 2 1/3     1 1 2   1   1   2 2 4
44 MITOGLOU, KONSTANTINOS 6:02   0/2       1 1     1   1 1   -4
50 BENTIL, BEN 5:39   0/1       2 2           1    
Team             3 3               3
Totals 200:00 91 24/45 10/19 13/16 6 29 35 19 6 14 3 3 18 19 105
        53.3% 52.6% 81.3%
Head coach: PEDOULAKIS, ARGYRIS
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Valencia Basket
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 COLOM, QUINO 17:59 10 2/2 2/7   1 1 2   2 2     1 2 8
2 MARINKOVIC, VANJA 8:39 3   1/3                   1    
3 LOYD, JORDAN 31:19 27 5/7 3/3 8/9   5 5 8 2 2 1   3 6 41
5 NDOUR, MAURICE 24:15   0/3 0/1     2 2 2   4 1 1 2 1 -5
7 LABEYRIE, LOUIS 13:22 8 3/4   2/3 1 3 4           1 2 11
10 TOBEY, MIKE 7:51   0/1 0/1   1 1 2 1     1   1   1
12 MOTUM, BROCK 10:11 3 1/4   1/2           1   1 1 2 -2
14 DUBLJEVIC, BOJAN 23:43 11 4/7 1/2   1 4 5 1   2     1   10
16 VIVES, GUILLEM 21:44 7 2/4 1/3     1 1 5 1 1   1 5 3 6
19 SAN EMETERIO, FERNANDO 22:25 5 1/3 1/3     2 2 3         1 2 7
30 SASTRE, JOAN 0:19                              
42 DOORNEKAMP, AARON 18:13 6   2/5     4 4     1     2   4
Team             2 2               2
Totals 200:00 80 18/35 11/28 11/14 4 25 29 20 5 13 3 3 19 18 83
        51.4% 39.3% 78.6%
Head coach: PONSARNAU, JAUME

Head Coaches

PEDOULAKIS, ARGYRIS
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
“In the first half I believe we were better and we could have had a bigger point difference if we did not get carried away with our enthusiasm. We made turnovers and conceded 10 transition and fastbreak points. We did not play transition defense. In the first 3 minutes of the second half I would say were tragic, and in that moment we gave an opportunity to Valencia to turn the game around. But in the last quarter we tightened up the defense, the players who came off the bench gave us a lot of help, and what we keep from this is a victory. It is very important you win when your starting players are not on a good day."
PONSARNAU, JAUME
Valencia Basket
“We wanted to play a good game. I think we had a good game plan, but we had problems during the game, especially on our offense and especially in the first half. Panathinaikos punished us after our misses, which we had a lot, playing a very good fast break. We were limited with special details on half-court defense, DeShaun Thomas punished us in the low post as we defended bad, but in the second half we started to play smart. We changed the feel of the game and finally found our offense with Jordan Loyd. We had 20 assists which is very good against a defense of Panathinaikos. At the end of the game, Calathes and Rice assumed responsibility, and drove their team to victory.”

Players

THOMAS, DESHAUN
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
"I was just being aggressive, trying to help my team any way I can. Valencia, they played well. They came out and executed. They are one of those teams that play really smart. They came out and fought. but I think we dialed in at the end defensively, took care of turnovers. And we made big shots, Tyrese Rice and Wesley Johnson, and Nick leads us. That's what did it for us in the end."
CALATHES, NICK
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
“It is huge, you have to protect your home gym to be able to compete for this EuroLeague. We did what we have to do tonight. We could have played a little better, but Valencia is a tough team, they wanted to come in and give us a tough matchup. We played tough and we are happy we got the win."
LOYD, JORDAN
Valencia Basket
“I am disappointed, it is another loss. We will try to improve like we always do every day and just keep building. It is a long season, it is still early and we are going to stay together, no matter what. That's the big thing. But we want to start winning, we got to get wins. There is no consolation. We will try to get back to the winning path.”
TOBEY, MIKE
Valencia Basket
“We started the game off not the way we wanted to. I think we did a good job responding to start the second half but we have to continue to fight the whole game. The whole game really there were points that were good and points that were bad. At the end of the day, they played well at the end and we weren't able to get stops when we needed to and get buckets when we needed to. We got to keep fighting, we got to learn from this and hopefully respond better.”
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